I'm so exhausted from painting the ceiling it's not even funny. My arms are tired, I've climbed and moved the ladder every 5 minutes so my knees are also tired, and my hair is coated in primer. AND I'm not done yet- it turns out I'll need a second coat. Hate hate hate.

It was a pain in the ass to paint this ceiling blue back in 2003, but I let it happen because my then boyfriend/housemate really wanted it. fixing it BACK to white is an even bigger pain in the ass, as anyone who has ever tried to paint a light color over a dark/rich color will tell you. Add texture to the mix and you have a Sisyphean task.

The only reason I'm dealing with this now is because the new floors are going in soon, and I thought it'd be a good idea to paint the ceiling now, while I could drip paint on the old floors with impunity.We had 2 rare beautiful fall days in Seattle this weekend, and I spent them inside on a ladder getting Kilz 2 Stainblocker all over my glasses.

We're painting this weekend too. Luckily we don't have popcorn ceiling, although we do have enough texture to make masking corners a big headache.

I wish we were smart enough to decide on a paint before we put in our carpeting upstairs. Unfortunately, we weren't - and the drop cloth Home Depot sold us did little to stop the paint from seeping right through. Oops. Still in the claim cycle with their insurance company trying to get that resolved.

We removed the popcorn ceiling, and installed a textured ceiling paper, which is pretty much wallpaper, only white, and really thick and texture-licious. It's probably more work than just repainting the ceiling, but we really HATE popcorn ceiling, and now we have nice "plaster swirl like" ceiling.

Also, if the ceiling texture is older than 1975, it might be made of asbestos. Ask someone who actually knows these things if you might possibly have an asbestos popcorn ceiling, and if so, what precautions to take painting it.

I actually believe the people that say that asbestos popcorn is perfectly safe as long as you don't touch it. Coats of pain seal in the weensy-tiny fibers, and they cannot get into your lungs, and that's that.